Cookie Quest
by Jean Cooper
Summary: Stu just wanted some cookies...he didn't mean to make Elli so upset. Secret Santa for Thoughtless7


**Secret Santa gift for Thoughtless7.**

**Title: Cookie Quest**

**Rating: K**

**Pairing: Elli/ Claire**

**I dont own Harvest Moon.**

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Gingerbread men are evil.

I mean, whose idea was it to make giant cookies, much bigger than any other cookies that a kid sees all year long, decorate them with candy and some yummy icing, and then make a house out of the same good stuff, and tell little kids they weren't allowed to touch it? You can't take some of the snow icing off the house; you can't eat the gingerbread man's gum drop buttons. You can't break off his stupid cookie leg without getting sent to the time out corner.

This by the way is where I am right now. Staring at the stupid wooden wall, arms crossed over my chest as I sulk. But no one seems to care. Those two are just…laughing and having a good time while I'm stuck in the corner.

Older sisters are mean. Both of them.

Elli didn't want me to help her cook anything; she didn't want me to help trim the tree.

She had given me some string and a needle, and a big bowel of popcorn. I was supposed to make the popcorn string. But I got hungry…So we only had a popcorn string with thirteen pieces of popcorn. It wasn't the end of the world, Claire had even said so.

Then Elli had been making her Christmas cookies. I didn't understand why I couldn't have any cookies. Why should I have to wait when they were sitting right there on a plate, all warm and chewy. Claire had came by and told me that I could have one (though one to me, really means three) when she went outside to do her chores.

Well you can't have chewy cookies without milk. And for some reason the milk was in the top shelf of the refrigerator. I didn't want to bother anyone, so I climbed into the refrigerator and…well I knocked over a few things that were inside…a chocolate pudding pie, a cheesecake, and…well I also busted the big jar of milk.

Elli had came into the kitchen to see me fall butt first into the chocolate pie, so not only was I in trouble, I looked like I had a terrible accident in my pants that May would tease more about for the rest of my life. AND not only did I get scolded at for that, I also didn't get my cookies…or my milk. In fact I had to mop the milk up.

Life is really not fair. What kind of …thing would the Harvest Goddess be to make me miss out on those sweet Christmas cookies? And the cookies taunt me so.

I tried to be good. I really did. Especially since that every time I began grating on Elli's nerves she would push her hair back behind her ear and remind me that I would get a lump of coal if I wasn't good. I had gone outside for a long time after that. Trying to stay out of the kitchen. Away from the cookies. I didn't care about the ham and stuff Elli was making. I just wanted the cookies.

And I stayed outside till I couldn't feel my fingers through my gloves. Long enough to make four snow brothers, who all had small rocks in their snow hands for cookies. Something that I wanted so badly. It was cruel and unusual punishment to taunt small kids with sweets. Elli was the meanest big sister in the world. After losing all feeling in my legs and arms, I decided it was time to go back inside.

And on the table…begging to be eaten was the gingerbread family. There were three of them, so I knew it was our family. Two lady cookies and a man cookie. He was my cookie. I was the only boy in the family after all. So what did it matter if I broke off the leg of the cookie I was going to get to eat tomorrow anyway? I didn't think it should have ended in the time out corner at all.

It was rightfully my cookie after all. But Elli was just…mad at me. Really really really mad at me. Like when I brought that bug to show her that one time. But as I said, it was rightfully my cookie, and now it lay on the plate, icing over the break in the leg, since Elli had so cruelly caught me before I was able to eat the missing limb.

I heard the door open and looked behind me, seeing Claire come in, all in her thick winter jacket that almost made her look like a smaller version of the egg shaped guy who came in the spring when all the people in town cooked stuff no one but him was allowed to eat. I guess his parents never taught him how to share.

"Kiddo, what are you doing in the naughty corner?" she asked as she unzipped her jacket.

"Elli said I had to stay here till she told me different," I muttered, glaring at the wall. I heard Claire shake her jacket, then heard her take a step towards the coat rack. I turned and jumped up as she let out a shout and fell to the floor, right on her back and hit her head hard.

"Elli!" I shouted, running into the kitchen and pointing out to the living room.

"I told you not to get up!" Elli snapped, turning on me with her bowel of cake mix, whisk in hand as she glared at me.

"Claire fell down and hit her head," I said quickly, opening the kitchen door to reveal the other woman, who seemed to be asleep on the floor.

"Oh good Goddess! Claire!" Elli shouted, running past me and leaving me standing in the kitchen.

"I'm fine, just got the wind knocked out of me." Claire said, trying to sit up and rubbing her head. "And a heck of a goose egg on the back of my head," she continued, the door swinging back and forth quickly from the force Elli had opened it. Elli kneeled down in front of Claire, helping her sit up and the door closed again.

But it finally stayed closed, and I looked around the kitchen, eyes landing on the sugar cookies cut out like trees, with there green frosting and red sprinkles. And they were Christmas cookies, and it was Christmas time. And who really needed milk with just one cookie?

I grabbed the cookie, smiling at it fondly, and then looked back at the door before grabbing another and putting it in my pocket. I might need a snack later. I stepped away and paused, looking back over my shoulder and then grabbing another one and shoving it in my other pocket.

I should share with May. But then…I would need one for Pastor Carter. So I shoved another in my back pocket and carefully slipped out of the kitchen with one visible cookie, taking a well deserved bite out of it as I looked at my two big sisters on the ground.

Elli's face was all read and Claire was grinning proudly at her while she waved around some funny looking green plant with some funny looking berries on it. I think she called it a mist toe….but I wasn't sure.

Claire was always making Elli blush, ever since we came to live here. And I never really understood it, but Elli was happy, and Claire didn't get mad at me for eating cookies.

Claire laughed and brought Elli into a hug, winking over Elli's shoulder at me and I gave her the thumbs up. If living with Claire meant I had more cookies and less trouble, then I was perfectly fine with that. Even if that sometimes meant cookies without milk.

Cookies were cookies, no matter how you cut them.


End file.
